HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF LIFE.
By G.
PRACTICAL life is an investment of time, means, health, and talents in general; it is the utilizing of opportunities, temporal and spiritual. Like all judicious investments, the more one puts in, the more he will get out. A proper investment of talents has no selfish purpose in view; the thought in mind is that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” While we may properly “have respect unto the recompense of the reward,” that is not the actuating motive if one would get the most out of the investment. Christ was the Creator of man, and designed that His creatures should secure the greatest possible returns for their investment of their God-given talent. He not only created man, but when man, through disobedience, was reduced to a life of short duration and limited opportunity, the Lord became Man Himself, and set an example of wise investment of the talents at man’s command. Of all men, He knew best how to put the most into a few years, and consequently how to get the most out of the brief allotment of time. It is well to note His mode of investment. First, He humbled Himself. This shows that He was not grasping after the gains that pertain to this world. Secondly, He did His heavenly Father’s will instead of His own; He put in His whole time and energy in doing such works as would please the Father. His every effort was to this end. This was His idea of putting the greatest amount into the practical purpose of a well-ordered life. This was His idea of laying up His treasure in heaven, and His advice to us is that the wisest investment is to lay up treasure in heaven, rather than to invest in the perishable goods and transient honors of this world. Now as to the gains of Christ’s investment during His short career on earth. What did He get in return for all that He in His humble way put into that life? The result to Him, so5far as this life is concerned, was a most cruel execution, an ignoble death. But that, being the result of His faithfulness, was also the seal of His great reward. The record says: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” It is not possible to get more out of a life than Christ got out of His; then it is certainly the part of wisdom to follow His example in the matter of investment, of putting the most into life that is possible. By following in His footsteps, we have the promise of reward in the same line of His. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” Surely, then, to follow Christ in His humble, self-sacrificing earthly life, is to put that into our probationary career which will enable us to get the most out of it. “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”